Wagering game machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines depends on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing wagering game machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuing need for wagering game machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play.
One way to add visual appeal to wagering games is to present wagering game content using stereoscopic three-dimensional graphics. Stereoscopic three-dimensional graphics appear to have depth, so that graphical objects appear to hover in space, in front of displays. One way to present graphics with a stereoscopic three-dimensional effect (3D) is to utilize an autostereoscopic display. An autostereoscopic display can present content in 3D (“3D content”) to a user without requiring the user to wear special 3D glasses or headgear. Some autostereoscopic displays utilize head tracking equipment, such as a camera, to track a position of a user's eyes. However, when a user moves his or her eyes entirely away from the camera the head tracking system resets a view of the 3D content to a default position. When the user looks back at the 3D display, then the camera has to begin re-tracking eye position again and will re-shift the appearance of the 3D content to the user's eyes again. However, during the re-shifting, the appearance of the 3D content may be temporarily blurred, doubled, or grainy to the viewer until the system realigns the view of the 3D content to the angle of the user's gaze. In a casino, the chances of a user looking away from an autostereoscopic display can be significant, such as in response to exciting events that occur in a group game or community event display, a presentation on a peripheral display, a win by another user, etc. Further, a good deal of wagering game content that is presented is based on random events (e.g., based on random number generation) and, therefore, cannot be pre-rendered. Rather, a gaming system must instantly determine which gaming elements, bonus content, etc., to present based on the random events and instantly render the presentation of that content which had just been selected for presentation. However, presenting 3D content on an autostereoscopic display that is not pre-rendered can be challenging especially when a user's viewing position may change or be interrupted based on interesting environmental stimuli that may occur within a casino. Therefore, presentation of 3D wagering game content via autostereoscopic displays within a casino presents certain challenges.